Lincoln City v Ipswich Town 
Saturday 24th October 2020 – 15:00
Sincil Bank
Pre-Match Thoughts - Mike
Back Down To Earth...........
On the face of it a 4-1 defeat at any time is a cause for concern, an eye opener, a reminder maybe that things are not all as rosy as they may have seemed, while some of that is true I think if we look a little deeper into Tuesday's thumping against Doncaster things may not be quite as bad as the knee Jerkers would have us believe. First off for 30 minutes Town played well and deservedly got their noses in front, at that stage the game was open and end to end with the odd chance coming for both sides, in fact had Alan Judge converted what for we was a decent opportunity we would have found ourselves Two up and in control, sadly he failed to find the net.
Yes it is fair to say Donny started to get on top over the final Fifteen minutes of the first half and deservedly got themselves level but the opening goal was very kind to them with the deflection that put the guy through and at the same time caught Wilson flat footed, if that was cruel the second to give the home side the lead was one of those flukes that come around now and again and there is little you can do about it. I felt going in at half time 2-1 down was a tad harsh on Town as for 30 minutes we had looked pretty comfortable and were playing half decent.
The Third goal really sealed our fate but again there is no doubt Toto pulls his man back and yes he falls down inside the box to get the penalty, strangely though Sims managed to keep on his feet all the time Toto was pulling him back outside the box and yet the ref fails to award a free kick when the foul clearly started well outside the box, I just find it so annoying, The fourth was a total howler by Tomasz Holy and by then we were in disarray for a few minutes. So yes on paper it's a mauling, on another day it ends up nowhere near a 4-1 defeat.
I think we can safely assume that Doncaster Rovers will be there or thereabouts come May, they look good and have some strength in depth which brings me onto another point, they had a pretty much full strength side available to Darren Moore to choose from including some new signings out to prove a point while we were again down to the bare bones in certain areas and once again we started the game with no striker on the pitch, you can get away with it and grind out results against the lesser lights but the top Six away from home is a different kettle of fish so from that point I don't see it as a disaster by any means.
As always the reaction from a section of "Town Fans" (hmmmm) is so over the top, the usual phrases splattering social media before the players had got back to the dressing rooms, "No Different to last season" "Been found out" "Blue Tinted specs" "not as good as we think we are" "can only beat the crap teams " I even saw "Relegation scrap he we come", I sincerely hope it is a scummer on a wind up but alas I fear not, we get it with every negative result irrespective of the run that has gone before it, the wins count for nothing because they are against rubbish sides apparently, I just wonder if Doncaster fans were acting up the same way when they lost to Wigan or Drew with MK Dons, Or if Hull fans did when they were trounced at Fleetwood ? I suspect not, the fact of the matter is that everyone in this divison can beat everyone and we lost to a very capable side away from home while having to deal with a crippling injury list and on the night it all went against us, enough said really. The bottom line is this, we are League One side who when the going gets tough have League Two fans.
Looking For A Reaction........
You can just see all the comments now if Town fail to bounce back against Lincoln City on Saturday, Two defeats on the spin and wheels will most definitely be deemed to have fallen off, for some anyway. As someone has said on the forum, losing at Doncaster is no disaster, nor is it to lose at Lincoln, it's just the fact we play them both back to back in the space of Five days and both away from home. Town need a reaction and a positive result, even a good performance and a point would hopefully appease the majority and while Lincoln are no mugs nor are they Doncaster, as far as I am aware anyway.
Town can take comfort from the fact that the same Bristol Rovers team that we have comprehensively beaten twice already plundered a win at Sincil Bank, add to that we are often told that Town have beaten nobody yet so glancing through Lincoln's result so far will show you they have beaten Oxford Utd, MK Dons, Charlton Ath and Plymouth Argyle so in truth it could be deemed that they are "up there" under false pretenses too.
I think playing some of the football we played in the opening Six games would cause The Imps problems and I feel it is down to what we do that will decide the outcome. Two players in good goal scoring form for Lincoln are Lewis Montsma(6) and Jorge Grant(5), they will be a dangerous pair and we will need to be much much tighter at the back than we were at the Keepmoat. Another name that jumps out at me is a certain Liam Bridcutt, the Midfielder seemed destined for much bigger things at one time and while he has done ok he never really hit the level some were predicting but at league One level he will be a useful player.
I think some Town players will know they need to improve on Tuesday and won't want to be losing their place in the starting Eleven with several players soon to be breathing down their necks as they return from Injury, Stephen Ward is clsoing in on a return and cold be back at Left back, Oli Hawkins may well be preferred up front while Keanen Bennetts looks a real handful and may well be close to a first start. Whatever the line up I can see Town bouncing back in some way to gain at least a point which for me would be an acceptable return from another of the early season pace setters. Keep the faith. COYB'S.
The Opposition – Lincoln City
Having formed officially as an amateur association in 1884 after the disbanding of Lincoln Rovers (formerly Lincoln Recreation).
Lincoln soon helped to form what was then the Second Division in 1892–93 season, as an increasing number of clubs wished to join the Football League. The first game at Sincil Bank was in 1895, after moving from the John O'Gaunts Ground, was a friendly draw with local rivals, Gainsborough Trinity.
Up until the 1920s Lincoln spent most of their time swinging between the Second Division and the more localised leagues, the Midland and also the Central league. After then, however, in the 1921–22 season, Lincoln, along with several other clubs from the Central and Midland leagues, founded the Third Division (North). The newly founded league and the Second Division would take turns in becoming Lincoln's home up until the early 1960s where they would drop a further division to the Fourth Division in the 1962–63 season.
Their championship honours include three Division 3 (North) championships in 1931–32, 1947–48 and 1951–52, a Division 4 (now League Two) championship in 1975–76 (when they were managed by future England manager Graham Taylor).
It was the 1975–76 season where the club broke the record for most points for a whole season when 2 instead of 3 points were awarded for a win with 74 points in total (this was and still is the record amount of points achieved under the 2-point system); the record of winning the most games (32) and losing the fewest (4), was also set. City also become the first club in nearly a decade to score over 100 league goals (111 in total). They also won 21 out of 23 home league games in this season (the other 2 were drawn) and also won 11 games away from home, another impressive bout from the club. It was the season where, Graham Taylor recalls, "teams were petrified of coming to Sincil Bank".
In 1982 and again in 1983, Lincoln narrowly missed out on promotion to the Second Division. In 1985, Lincoln were the opposition at Bradford City when the Bradford City stadium fire claimed the lives of 56 spectators – two of them, Bill Stacey and Jim West, were Lincoln fans, and subsequently these fans had the Stacey West stand named after them.
Lincoln were relegated on the last day of the following season, and the year after that they became the first team to suffer automatic relegation from the Football League. This was a dramatic decline for a club who had almost reached the Second Division four years earlier and has been linked to the trauma arising from the disaster. This marked the fourth occasion on which Lincoln were demoted from the Football League, a record that still stands.
They regained their Football League place automatically via promotion as champions of the Conference (beforehand it was done by re-election) at the first attempt with a long ball game devised by eccentric manager Colin Murphy and held on to it until the end of season 2010–11. On 8 September 1990, Lincoln were the opposition when David Longhurst suffered a fatal heart attack during the first half of a game against York City at Bootham Crescent.
On 3 May 2002 Lincoln successfully petitioned to go into administrationbut the financial crisis would leave the first team squad bereft of players as the day saw five senior players –released at the end of their contracts with a sixth, departing for Leyton Orient. A hectic day finished with confirmation of Keith Alexander's official appointment as team manager.
In 2002–03, Alexander was given the task of keeping the team in the football league, he proved the many pundits and fans who believed that Lincoln would be relegated and sent out of business due to financial irregularities wrong. With a team made up of cheap ex-non-league players and the lower paid members of the previous season's squad he managed to take them to the play-off final which they lost to Bournemouth. The team were rewarded with a civil reception in Lincoln, and an open-top bus ride through Lincoln, an event usually preserved for the winners of such competitions, but was awarded to the team because of the massive achievement.
In 2003–04 Alexander again confounded the critics by coaching the Imps to another play-off position, this time losing to eventual winners Huddersfield Town in the semi-finals. Alexander, one of the very few black managers in the Football League, had a very serious brain injury (a cerebral aneurysm) halfway through the season, but made a full recovery. In the 2004–05 season they again qualified for the play-offs, for a third year running, and in the semi-finals Lincoln beat Macclesfield Town 2–1 on aggregate over two legs but lost in the final against Southend United 2–0 after extra time.
In the 2005–06 season finished 7th in League 2 after only losing 3 games since the new year. Lincoln were to face local neighbours Grimsby Town in the play-offs, a side they had beaten 5–0 at Sincil Bank earlier in the season. However, once again it was not to be, as Lincoln lost 3–1 on aggregate to become the first team ever to lose four consecutive play-off competitions.
Keith Alexander left his position as manager of Lincoln City by mutual consent on 24 May 2006 stating that he could take the club no further, and shortly after on 15 June John Schofield was appointed his successor. For the fifth year in a row, under a different manager, however, Lincoln City reached the League Two play-offs after finishing 5th in the league (the highest position that they have qualified for the play-offs in). Once again, however, they lost, this time to Bristol Rovers in the semi-finals courtesy of a 2–1 defeat away and a 3–5 defeat at home. The failure to succeed in five successive Play-off competitions is a record for any club.
After a run of nine losses and a draw in the final ten games, Lincoln City were relegated from League Two on the last day of the end of the 2010–2011 season, finishing in 23rd Place.
Following relegation to the Conference Premier, Tilson released all but three members of the squad, telling them they had no future at Sincil Bank. By early October, Lincoln were one point above the relegation zone and the management were coming under fire after a run of one win in four; Tilson was sacked as manager on 10 October 2011 and Grant Brown was put in temporary charge.
Brown remained in charge for four games, winning the first but none of the subsequent three, before former Mansfield Town manager David Holdsworth was confirmed as manager. Holdsworth managed the Imps to safety but only by 8 points.
On 17 February 2013, David Holdsworth left the club by mutual consent following twelve games without a win. On 27 February 2013, Gary Simpson, a former assistant of Keith Alexander during his time at the club, was appointed manager until the end of the season. Safety was secured on the final day with an away win against Hyde.
After a good start to the 2013–14 season, Lincoln went on a run of just two wins in seventeen games, which saw the Imps embroiled in relegation trouble once more. From the start of February to the end of the season, Lincoln lost just three games, and finished 14th in the league, their best placing since relegation.
Gary Simpson was placed on gardening leave on 3 November 2014. Assistant manager Chris Moyses was placed in temporary charge and then appointed permanently on 8 December 2014. Lincoln finished 15th that season. 2015–16 would prove to be largely a season of mid-table stability, eventually culminating in a 13th-place finish. Just before the season ended, Moyses announced that he would leave the club in order to focus on his business interests outside of football, and was subsequently replaced by Braintree Town manager Danny Cowley.
City started the 2016–17 season with mixed form, winning two and losing two of their opening four games. This was followed by a run of victories that resulted in the Imps sitting top of the table after a victory at Tranmere. The good form continued into the New Year as the Imps gradually started to pull clear of the group. Despite a bit of a dip of form in March, Cowley would go on to lead the Imps to a National League title and a return to League Two for the first time since their relegation six years earlier.
In the 2016–17 FA Cup, Lincoln beat Championship side Ipswich Town, in a replay, before defeating Championship leaders Brighton and Hove Albion at Sincil Bank to make the fifth round of the FA cup for the first time since the end of the Victorian era. On 18 February, Lincoln went on to beat top flight side Burnley 1–0 to historically go through to the FA Cup quarter final, the first time a non-league club had progressed to the last eight since 1914. In the quarter finals, they were defeated 5–0 at Arsenal.
In the 2017–18 season, on 6 February 2018, Lincoln beat Chelsea U21s in the semi-final of the 2017–18 EFL Trophy, taking them to Wembley Stadium for the first time in the 134 years of the club. They went on to win the final against Shrewsbury Town on 8 April 2018. They also qualified for the semi-finals of the League 2 playoffs, but were knocked out by Exeter over the two legs.
Lincoln won League Two, on 22 April 2019, after a 0–0 draw against Tranmere Rovers, having been top of the table since 25 August 2018.
Last season the Imps finished in 16th place in League 1
The Manager – Michael Appleton
Form Guide
Lincoln City Last 5 Matches, currently in 3rd place with 16 points
27 Sep Lincoln City 2 - 0 Charlton
3 Oct Blackpool 2 - 3 Lincoln City
10 Oct Lincoln City 1 - 2 Bristol Rovers
17 Oct Fleetwood 0 - 0 Lincoln City
20 Oct Lincoln City 2 - 0 Plymouth
Ipswich Last 5 Matches, currently in 2nd place with 16 points
26 Sep Ipswich Town 2 - 0 Rochdale
3 Oct Milton Keynes 1 - 1 Ipswich Town
10 Oct Blackpool 1 - 4 Ipswich Town
17 Oct Ipswich Town 2 - 0 Accrington
20 Oct Doncaster 4 - 1 Ipswich Town
Marko's Caption Contest – THE DON CUP
Sorry, was quite busy last week with work and this slipped my mind.
Have a go at this.
Match referee – Kevin Johnson
LINCOLN CITY 1 IPSWICH TOWN 2
